Warlords IV

Rating:
Summary: Kind of a mixed bag
Review: I am still undecided about this game. I've only put about 10-15 hours into it so far, but had put hundreds (possibly thousands) of hours into Warlords 2, 3, and 3 Dark Lords Rising.

For the most part, what it offers is impressive and visually pleasing. Once you get into it more, you realize that it actually has fewer features. Kind of like how Heroes of Might and Magic IV lost a ton of features, only not quite so bad. Good graphics, unfortunately, are not what I consider important in my turn-based strategy games however.

Anyway, I am not quite addicted to the game. I will probably finish the campaign, just because I am convinced that there will be something along the way that will be cool. I haven't seen it yet, however, after breezing through the first 3 parts of the campaign.

Some of the things that particularly bug me is there is no vectoring. You have to physically manage every single unit when you send them to places. You can set production waypoints, but that is a huge mess. Chances are, once they get to a city, there will already be 8 troops in it, so they will just stand outside unless you happen to see them. Also, the movement points really bother me... if I have a stack of 7 units, and they pass by another unit which is out of movement... everybody loses their movement for that turn. It doesn't matter if my stack of 7 had 20 mv points left, or if I ungroup the one unit that was out of movement. Very frustrating.

Also, heroes are seriously crippled in this game. In the other warlord games, you built up heroes that would be one-man armies, and stockpile every magical item and hoard every quest available. Here, magical items are rather weak, quests and ruins are so time-consuming to be almost pointless, and heroes are expendable.

There are some interesting ideas here, and I think this could have been a great game if they expanded on the previous games rather than slashing out so many old features. It almost feels like the game was unfinished, and that it needed another two or three months to be developed.

Rating:
Summary: 1/2 the game of Warlords 3
Review: I've been playing Warlords since the original game came out. I actually still play the original every once in awhile. Every new version of the game improved on the concept with the exception of Warlords 4.

This is about 1/2 the game it should be. There are so many things missing, most notably diplomacy, that simply ruin this game. I honestly believe they ran out of money to make the game.

Warlords and Heroes of Might and Magic are my favorite series of all time. I love these types of games. This game is so bad however, that I actually deleted this game, threw it away and went back to playing Warlords 3 which is a significantly better game.

The only good thing about this game is that when I went to the website to see when they would release the unfinished half of the game many of the posters were talking about a game called Dominions 2. I ordered it and have been playing it almost non stop for 3 months.

Rating:
Summary: 1/2 the game of Warlords 3
Review: I've been playing Warlords since the original game came out. I actually still play the original every once in awhile. Every new version of the game improved on the concept with the exception of Warlords 4.

This is about 1/2 the game it should be. There are so many things missing, most notably diplomacy, that simply ruin this game. I honestly believe they ran out of money to make the game.

Warlords and Heroes of Might and Magic are my favorite series of all time. I love these types of games. This game is so bad however, that I actually deleted this game, threw it away and went back to playing Warlords 3 which is a significantly better game.

The only good thing about this game is that when I went to the website to see when they would release the unfinished half of the game many of the posters were talking about a game called Dominions 2.

I ordered it and have been playing it almost non stop for 3 months.

Rating:
Summary: Fun and easy to learn
Review: I'[m not a hard-core gamer, and I don't spend all my free time playing games. RPGs that are huge and complex are more trouble than I want to go to, and strategy games with dozens of complex tradeoffs that take weeks to learn are way beyond my interest.

This is a fun, easy to learn game that you can play for a little bit at a time and have fun with. There's enough strategy to add interesting elements, but much of the game is concentrated on D&D-style combat between parties of creatures, which makes it fast-paced and enjoyable.

If you are a hard-core gamer, I suspect you'll find this pretty facile and get bored with it. But for the casual player like me, this is a terrific game.

Rating:
Summary: Same old
Review: Most players that have interest in this turn-based game have probably already played Warlord 3 and those will find 4 to be very much the same old game with some relatively minor modifications. Not that that's a bad thing - I used to like 3 and I like 4 quite a bit too. I like the turn-based style and this is one of the very few turn-based titles remaining. The ability to develop characters is also a plus. Even though they are very simplistic the economic models of maximizing resources under constraints are fun for all civilization and family fans.

The drawbacks are:
- Simplistic strategies - at the end of the day the strategy changes very little from one scenario to another.
- One on one combat - the way the game goes a unit fights another unit then after the battle is resolved the surviver takes on another unit. This style of combat gives almost no chances to even very large armies if they are faced with a single very strong unit. For example, I have a hero with Heal +5, combat 25 and life 50 - the guy can basically single handedly go through almost unlimited number of opposing units.
- Flying units make terrain irrelevant - I think the map could be more of a factor and strategic maneuvering more important had it not been for the fact that most races have some kind of a strong flying unit (Pegasus, Archon, etc.). With the flying units in the game things like control of bridges, crossroads and mountain passes become irrelevant.

Overall, I don't play many games these days but this is one I enjoy. I wish they would change it a little more to allow for a little more varied play and richer strategies but then again I am just glad to see a turn based title - a dying breed.

Rating:
Summary: Disciples II is better
Review: My bottom line is that if you want a more engaging and more appealing turn-based fantasy strategy game, go for Disciples II. The only draw-back of Disciples is that there are only five races (human, undead, demon, dwarves, and elves). Warlords have more.

My biggest gripe about Warlords IV is the animation and the graphic; it's really bad. I suggest you download both demo of Warlords and Disciples and compare the artwork and gameplay. Another problem is that there are no real resource management... no gold to mine and no mana to collect. Also, each race has only 6 units! The human race has the swordman, bowman, knight, siege engine, archon, and a hero. In comparison, the human race in Disciples has almost 20 different battle units, ranging from assassins to white wizards.

Some of the drawbacks of turn-based strategy are evident in Warlords, but the negatives outlined above didn't impress me. If the price is low, I guess then it isn't a big concern.

Rating:
Summary: Surprisingly good
Review: My first experience with the Warlords series goes back to Warlords II. Ancient as it was (had to jury rig it to run in Win 95), it was a good game then and remains one in its latest incarnation.

Warlords IV retains all of the old charm from its early editions and adds features such as a 'campaign scenario' that takes the hero through a series of quest adventures and a story line. It permits the player to retain built up heroes for subsequent scenarios. The game also gives the various races more distinctive attributes (advantages and disadvantages). The computer players' artificial intelligence is enhanced and can be tough to counter.

Its charm lies in two features. A hotseat mode allows multiple users to participate in the same game, switching the active player as each turn progresses. My only problem is that it no longer scrambles turn order randomly from turn to turn. The other feature is that it is a real strategy game, unlike so many 'build a village' games that are actually real-time tactical exercises that have little to do with real strategy. RTS is anything but truly strategic and is a deceptive misnomer.

For a fun, addictive game that a host of people can enjoy together, try Warlords IV.

Rating:
Summary: Shine your blade and prepare your mind
Review: This game compiles an incredible amount of strategic game engines. It has a great mixture of RTS, RPG, and Turn Base style game-play and can be refreshenly addictive. This game will expand your imagination and make time-taking more productive. You won't regret purchasing this game unless you perfer mindless action and eye-straining 3D graphics.

Rating:
Summary: How could Ubi Soft have released this???
Review: This is the 21st century. The mini-map in this game looks like it was made 20 years ago.

Is there anything else to this game than producing soldiers, never running out of resources (even on Emperor level) to produce more (by the way there are only 2 resources - gold for units and upgrading cities and mana for casting spells - which is sad in itself) troops, and walking with armies around the map, and fighting?

There is no diplomacy, and no fighting for resources. There is absolutely no challenge in this game whatsoever.

Also, there are no buildings to be built in the cities, you only upgrade or raze the current city level and that allows you to build more or less powerful units in that city.

The combat system is miserable. You cannot have more than 8 creatures in your army, and neither can your enemy. So when it comes to battle, you have your 8 units and his 8 units lined up, and then you choose a unit and the computer chooses a unit and they fight one on one (with a little outside help which adds a tiny bit of rudimentary dimension to the whole thing but that is almost irrelevant), and when one dies its owner chooses the next unit to fight. There is no retreating or surrendering, or God forbid teleporting out of the battle. There is almost no strategy in this game whatsoever.

If you want a good turn-based strategy game, get Heroes Of Might & Magic 3, it is still by far unsurpassed, and compared to this game it is the Queen of Heaven - especially judging by the combat system and the overall gameplay - you have tactics skills, you have miscellaneous skills which increase the efficiency of your troops in battle, you have battle spells whose effects depend on your skill in the relevant school of magic - it is incredible. You are also using all your units on the battlefield at the same time, and you can actually form a strategy and defend your archers with your foot soldiers, and you can send your flying units to distract the enemy's archers, etc. That is the real beauty of a strategy game, and none of that exists in Warlords IV, because everyone fights one on one, regardless whether they are a flyer, giant, archer, or warrior.

Other than that, the graphics are decent, but nothing special, music is okay for this type of game, and between-the-levels animations are worse than pathetic.

They proudly claim that the game has 10 different races, but what they don't say is that the previous version of the game (Warlords BattleCry 2) had 12 races, and that they got rid of two of them (one was High Elves - my favourite - and the other one was Dark Dwarves, which just seem to have vanished into the depths of the abyss for no apparent reason).

Overall, this game is so simplified and dumbed-down that I got personally insulted by it even after playing the demo. Had this game been released 10 years ago it would have been a big hit because of the graphics and sound, but not because of the gameplay or the fun factor. As it is, Warlords BattleCry 2 was so much better than this game. Take my advice and stay very, very far away from it.

If you don't believe me, go to Ubi Soft's official website and download the free & legal 141MB demo of this game, and you will see for yourself everything that I talked about in this review.

Rating:
Summary: A solid fantasy wargame
Review: Warlords 4 is a solid turn-based fantasy wargame in which you can play 10 different races and create a warlord character that you can take with you in either a campaign of linked scenarios, random maps, skirmishes or multiplayer.

Gameplay is simple to learn and unlike many real-time strategy games, you don't have to manage an economy or build resources. Cities build your combat units and generate income to maintain your armies of up to 8 units each. Each of the races has 8 unique units with different abilities such as archery, fire attack, regeneration, etc. All the units gain experience for successful combat and they become more powerful as the level up. With each new level, you can improve their stats such as life points, combat, or special skills. Hero units in particular can be devastatingly powerful at high levels. You can attach up to 3 of these hero units to your warlord's retinue and bring them with you. This role-playing element makes each of your warlords unique.

Cities are the only thing you can capture and control on the map. Some cities are permanently linked to resources that give bonuses to production, gold, unit strength, and these resources cannot be destroyed or captured on their own. Without the headache of sending out your peasants or workers to mine resources, you are free to spend your time on what matters most: exploration and combat.

Although you can turn off the hidden map feature, it's more fun to play when you can't see the whole map and you are forced to send scouts out to gradually reveal the map. All the maps are dotted with mysterious ruins, dungeons and towers that you can explore (at your peril) to find hoards of gold, experience and magic items. The magic items are particularly useful since you can attach up to 4 of them to your special hero units and grant them additional skills and combat bonuses.

Combat occurs when enemy armies meet in the open or when one army besieges a castle. This is probably the weakest part of the game: the player simply clicks on a unit to send it into the 2D combat map and the AI does likewise. The 2 units trade blows until only one is left standing. You have no control over the unit and special abilities are used or not used on a random basis. If your unit survives, he fights the next enemy and so on until one side has no units left. There is no option to retreat and you can't withdraw a unit once you have selected it. This means you have to sacrifice a ton of weaker units to bring down powerful enemy armies or cities with many defenders. Enemy warlords are particularly annoying as they have tons of life points and are always well-defended in their capital cities.

The graphics are generally good (though you will need a fast machine with a good graphics card to have all the options on), but the units are rather small on the main map and look rather cartoony on the 2D combat map. Spell effects are appropriately gaudy.

Warlords 4 is definitely worth trying if you like the slower pace and more thoughtful play of turn-based games instead of the hectic clicking and micromanagement of many real time games. Give it a try--you might find yourself hooked on this simple, but deep wargame.